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Auxiliary verbs

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noun

GRAMMAR

plural noun: auxiliary verbs

a verb used in forming the tenses, moods, and voices of other verbs. The primary auxiliary verbs in English are be, do, and have ; the modal auxiliaries are can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, and would.

An example of a continuous tense is the present continuous or past continuous. These verbs are called stative, or state verbs. A verb which isn’t stative is called a dynamic verb, and is usually an action. Often stative verbs are about liking or disliking something, or about a mental state, not about an action.

Objectives
1. Review quiz

2. Homework check – text meaning

3. Reading about linear and natural time

4. Conjunctions matching exercise

5. Conjunctions kahoots!

What is a discourse marker in English?

Discourse markers are words and phrases used in speaking and writing to ‘signpost’ discourse. Discourse markers do this by showing turns, joining ideas together, showing attitude, and generally controlling communication. Some people regard discourse markers as a feature of spoken language only.

adjective – English is important. Coming to class on time is important.

adverb – People shouldn’t stay on their phones for too long, more importantly young people shouldn’t even have phones. Ever!

more & most = comparative + superlative

I like ice cream, indeed it’s my favourite food.

British weather is not always amazing, in the case of the recent floods many people’s houses have been ruined.

The difference between the verbs ‘to compare’ and ‘to contrast’ seems to have caused some heated debate. Probably more than it should. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s the perenial potato debate. Which do you prefer? Sweet potatoes or old fashioned regular potatoes? Or how about yams? Surely a discussion about potatoes couldn’t cause so much argument, could it?

Let’s look at the meaning of ‘to contrast’ first because it’s easier to understand:

So the potatoes are rounder, and obviously, the sweet potatoes are ummm sweeter. I’m not doing very well here….

Cleveland Health Clinic explain that, “Sweet potatoes provide 400% of your daily requirement of vitamin A. They also have more vitamin C, fewer calories, more fibre and fewer total carbs than white potatoes, despite more sugar. But don’t forget white potatoes — they’re more versatile in cooking and less expensive.“

So that’s the contrast sorted. Fine. We’re happy with that. One is usually white the other is usually orange. Contrast! Easy… So, to compare:

But – we also use ‘to compare’ – to talk about similarities and to decide which thing is better. We can make chips out of potatoes and sweet potatoes; the taste is different but overall I prefer regular potatoes:

Five very expensive paintings by Picasso, Michelangelo, Rembrant and Warhol have been stolen. Two detectives are going to interview the director of the art gallery about the incident.

One of the detectives is a ‘good cop’ and does not want to upset the famous director, the other detective is the ‘bad cop’ and doesn’t care. The bad cop leads the interview and asks direct questions. The good cop will then re-phrase every question as an indirect question.

At the end – the 2 cops decide if they think the director is guilty or not.

What is she like?

When we ask ‘What is she like?’, we are asking about her personality/character. ‘She is tall’ is not a good answer to this question because ‘tall’ is used to describe appearance.7 Jul 2008